FIONA Phillips’ husband Martin Frizell has shared an update amid her Alzheimer’s battle.
Fiona was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s in 2022 and her condition has deteriorated since.
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Taking to Instagram, Martin shared a photo of their book Remember When on the Sunday Times Bestsellers List – at number five.
The couple released Remember When last month and in it, Martin heartbreakingly reveals how Fiona failed to recognise her eldest son Nat, 24.
His Instagram post also included a throwback snap of Fiona from before her diagnosis.
The caption read: “I’m sitting under a pink awning hence the colour of the Sunday Times Bestsellers list – the chart everyone wants to be on.
Read more on Fiona Phillips
“And for the fifth consecutive week, Fiona is on the bestsellers list ( she made No1).
“She wants to say a massive thank you to everyone who has shown interest in her story, it’s really lifted her mood.
“Can I also thank the many folk who have been in touch with their own stories, suggestions of new treatments and memories of Fiona from her working days.
“I attach my favourite picture of her from a tv location shoot and shows what a force of life and vitality she had.
“It’s from one of the many photo albums we flick through as we enjoy Sting’s essential collection – he’s replaced the Stylistics!”
One follower commented: “Beautiful photo, thank you for sharing.”
Another added: “Devastating illness, sending love.”
A third shared: “Such a cruel disease. I’ve read the book too, it was very enlightening but so sad for such a lovely lady.
“Best wishes Martin and Fiona you are so brave xxx.”
While a fourth remarked: “I loved watching Fiona on GMTV – great photo.”
Former This Morning editor Martin returned to the show to discuss the book, but Fiona wasn’t well enough to join him.
He told hosts Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary: “She’s got bad depression because she wants to work, she’s not well enough today to come and talk to you.”
Other major Alzheimer’s breakthroughs
While experts have warned that dementia diagnoses in England have reached record numbers, there have been a number of recent advances against brain robbing diseases.
From “game-changing” drugs gaining approval to blood tests that can spot the condition years before symptoms, here are other major Alzheimer’s breakthroughs.
- A “game-changing” Alzheimer’s drug called donanemab, that slows mental decline by up to 60 per cent has been approved in the United States. A UK decision on whether the drug will become available to patients in the UK with early symptoms is expected imminently.
- A blood test that detects Alzheimer’s up to 15 years before symptoms emerge is set to be made free on the NHS within a year. The new test is cheaper, easier and at least as accurate as the current diagnosis options and works by measuring levels of a protein in the blood called p-tau217.
- Researchers have developed a first-of-its-kind test that could predict dementia up to nine years before a diagnosis, with 80 per cent accuracy. It involves analysing network of connections in the brain when it’s in “idle mode” to look for very early signs of the condition.
- A woman who has evaded Alzheimer’s disease despite half her relatives getting it could hold the clues to how to prevent it, with scientists pinpointing a particular gene which they think could help prevent Alzheimer’s from progressing.
Angry over the lack of coverage given to the condition, which is the biggest killer in the UK, Martin’s initial plan to write a few paragraphs soon became 24,000 words.
He said: “It started off when we knew it was Alzheimer’s. It was to give her a purpose, to give her something to do. This is a bubbly smart, fearless woman, very modern woman and all of a sudden it stops.
“I just get very angry no one talks about it. We become invisible with Alzheimer’s, no one wants to talk about it.”
Opening up about Fiona’s current condition, Martin said: “She’s got anxiety, she’s got a secondary problem that causes her to be in a lot of pain, which adds to the confusion.”
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